LS R1B – Writing Rights: Critical Perspectives on Human Rights – Syllabus – Spring 2013
Tu/Th, 8-9:30 am, 223 Wheeler
Genevieve R. Painter
genevieve.painter@berkeley.edu
Mailbox: 2240 Piedmont Avenue
Office hours: tbd
Human rights have become the dominant frame for thinking about social justice, and the path to
human rights is paved with written words. A generation of human rights activists came of age
through writing. For example, Amnesty International coalesced into a social movement by asking
people to write letters to prisoners of conscience. This course will question the received wisdom
about the role of human rights in struggles for justice. We will study primary texts, historical,
political, and anthropological readings about human rights, and case studies, including on
equality, indigenous self-determination, genocide, and post-2008 activism. We will learn about
and practice various modes of human rights writing. Based on our study of research and writing
about rights, students will develop and share their own research projects.1
Required Texts
•
•
•
•
Course Reader (available at Copy Central on Bancroft, and on reserve)
Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams. The Craft of Research.
Chicago: The University of Chicago, 2011
Moyn, Samuel. The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap
Press of Harvard University Press, 2010.
Additional materials distributed through bspace or in class.
Reference Texts
These reference texts may be helpful resources. Students are not required to purchase them.
• University of Chicago. The Chicago Manual of Style. Chicago, Ill: University of Chicago
Press, 2003 (available online through Oskicat also)
• Anne Lamott. Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. New York: Anchor
Books, 1991
• Jane-Anne Staw. Unstuck: A Supportive and Practical Guide to Working through Writer's
Block. 1st ed. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2004.
Learning Objectives
This is a four-unit course satisfying the second half of UC Berkeley’s Reading and Composition
requirement. You should already have taken R1A. The course teaches skills in critical reading
and effective writing. This course will equip you to:
• Read and critically engage with a variety of primary and secondary sources about human
rights, including identifying an author’s point of view and main argument and assessing
its credibility and persuasiveness
• Understand the broad outlines of the scholarly literature on human rights
• Become a competent and versatile writer, including through writing logical and coherent
essays, with an introduction, argument, and conclusion
• Apply insights from critical reading to developing and researching a human rights
question and sharing your research in written and oral form
1
I acknowledge the contributions of Emily Bruce, Andrew Deak, Stefan Ludwig-Hoffmann, and Tina Piper
to the design of this course.
LS R1B – Writing Rights: Critical Perspectives on Human Rights – Syllabus – Spring 2013
Attendance
•
•
•
•
This course is planned as a collaborative and participatory learning space. You must
come to class to create the group dynamic and learn from each other.
You have three unannounced, unexcused absences for the semester; these absences
will not have any impact on your final grade.
After your third absence, any additional absence will reduce your final grade by one third
(i.e. B+ to B). This applies to absences for any reason (illness, alarm clock malfunction,
personal emergency). I suggest saving your absences for when you need them.
I take attendance by asking you to complete a mini-feedback & question form at the end
of each class. You must hand in this form to be counted as present.
Participation
•
•
•
•
You must participate in class to learn from this course.
There are many ways to participate, including speaking in class, speaking in group work,
active listening, thoughtful preparation of readings and response papers, and diligent
contributions to peer review.
Please come to class prepared to discuss the assigned readings.
Please bring your readings to class.
Readings
This is a college-level reading course. The readings are intended to challenge you. Different
types of readings will teach you different ways of reading: some texts will need to be read
closely and deliberately, while others should be skimmed. You should plan on spending three
hours reading for every class session. A page count is provided per class session to help you
budget your time. You are not expected to master every detail of every reading. You are
expected to grapple with moving effectively through a volume of reading, a necessary skill in
embarking on individual research projects. The course schedule also includes optional and
recommended readings to provide a springboard for further research.
Writing Assignments
Further instructions for assignments will be provided. Due dates are in the course schedule.
• 6 one-page Reading Response papers
• 2-page Baseline Essay
• 2-page summary and critique of an Optional Reading
• 3 1-page assignments
• Research Paper Building Blocks: 2-page annotated bibliography, 1 paragraph research
paper abstract, Research Paper plan, Research Paper Outline
• Essay 1 - 4-page essay and revision
• Essay 2 - 6-page research paper and revision
• Essay 3 - 14-page research paper and revision
Format of Writing Assignments
•
•
•
Please include your name in the header of each page.
Double-space your work, use a 12-point font, include page numbers, and set your
margins to 1” top and bottom, 1.25” left and right.
Please follow instructions on submitting electronically or in hard-copy.
2 LS R1B – Writing Rights: Critical Perspectives on Human Rights – Syllabus – Spring 2013
Grades
This course must be taken for a letter grade. A C- grade is required to fulfill your R1B
requirement. Grades will be calculated as follows:
20%
12%
8%
18%
42%
Participation:
Reading response papers, baseline essay, classroom participation, peer review,
research paper building blocks, presentation
Short Writing Assignments (graded pass/fail)
2-page Optional Reading Summary and Critique*
3 1-page assignments
Essay 1 – Draft and Revision (4 pages)
Essay 2 – Draft and Revision (6 pages)
Essay 3 – Draft and Revision (14 pages)
* You may do an additional Optional Reading assignment for extra credit.
Deadlines and Penalties
Unless otherwise indicated, all assignments are due at noon. Reading responses and the
Optional Reading Summary and Critique are due at noon on the day before class.
As a courtesy to your colleagues, please submit written work on time. Classroom discussion and
peer review exercises depend on it. Late work will be penalized as follows:
• Reading responses and Short-Writing Assignments – no credit if turned in late
• Final Essays 1, 2, and 3 – 1/3 of a grade per day.
Academic Honesty
•
•
•
I follow UC Berkeley’s policy on plagiarism. Broadly understood, plagiarism is the
presentation of another’s words or ideas as one’s own without attributing the proper
source. Plagiarism includes copying material from books and journals, as well as taking
material from the Internet. Plagiarism also includes privately purchasing or obtaining
papers from others, which one then presents as one’s own. Any material taken word-forword from another source must be placed in quotation marks and footnoted or cited
within the text. You can use ideas and information from other authors without directly
quoting from them, but you must acknowledge them in your citations.
I will work with the Office of Student Conduct to investigate suspicions of plagiarism to
the fullest extent possible. Please ask if you are in doubt.
An important part of avoiding accidental plagiarism is carefully and consistently citing any
ideas or quotations that are borrowed from other authors. You must use a consistent,
clear citation, and recognizable system in your written work.
Accommodations
•
•
If you need any accommodations for the course, please let me know within the first two
weeks of the semester so that I can make the necessary arrangements.
If you are – for any reason – uncomfortable speaking in class, please feel free to come to
my office hours and we can work together to develop a strategy for your participation.
3 LS R1B – Writing Rights: Critical Perspectives on Human Rights – Syllabus – Spring 2013
Classroom Code of Conduct
To be agreed and incorporated
Contacting Me
•
•
I will respond to email queries about administrative or logistical matters, generally within
24 hours.
Please come to office hours with any questions or concerns about the course material,
research, or writing. I will not engage in lengthy substantive discussion over email.
Campus Resources
Disabled Students’ Program (DSP),
260 Cesar Chavez Student Center, 642-0518, http://dsp.berkeley.edu
• The DSP serves students with disabilities of all kinds, including mobility, visual, or hearing
impairments; speech impairments; chronic illnesses such as AIDS, diabetes, and lupus;
seizure disorders; head injuries; painful conditions such as back injuries & carpal tunnel
syndrome; psychological disabilities such as bipolar disorder and severe anxiety or
depression; attention deficit disorder; & learning disabilities. Services are individually
designed & based on the specific needs of each student as identified by DSP’s specialists.
Student Learning Center (SLC)
642-9494, http://slc.berkeley.edu
• As the primary academic support service for students at the University of California,
Berkeley, the SLC assists students in transitioning to Cal: navigating the academic terrain;
creating networks of resources; and achieving academic, personal, and professional goals.
Student Life Advising Services (SLAS)
642-4257, http://slas.berkeley.edu
• SLAS is an academic counseling/advising service that assists all undergraduate students,
with a primary focus on Education Opportunity Program students and students who
participated in outreach programs. The SLAS office assists students in counseling/advising
on academic, personal, and social matters.
Ombudsperson for Students
102 Sproul Hall, 642-5754
• The Ombudsperson for Students provides a confidential service for students involved in a
University-related problem (either academic or administrative), acting as a neutral complaint
resolver and not as an advocate for any of the parties involved in a dispute. All matters
referred to this office are held in strict confidence. The only exceptions, at the sole discretion
of the Ombudsman, are cases where there appears to be imminent threat of serious harm.
Tang Center Counseling and Psychological Services
2222 Bancroft Way, 642-9494, http://uhs.berkeley.edu
• The UHS Counseling and Psychological Services staff provides confidential assistance to
students managing problems that can emerge from illness such as financial, academic,
legal, family concerns, and more. In the realm of sexual harassment, UHS coordinates
education programs, crisis counseling, advocacy, and medical care for women and men who
have been harassed or assaulted.
4 LS R1B – Writing Rights: Critical Perspectives on Human Rights – Syllabus – Spring 2013
Course Timetable
This course timetable may be revised. You are responsible for heeding classroom and bspace
announcements. Page count is listed before the class meeting date. Assignments due are listed
after the class number. Assignments due outside of class time are shaded gray. All readings are
in the course reader unless noted.
Abbreviations: P = primary text, O = optional, R = recommended as a starting point for further
research, RR = reading response, W = watch on Internet
Tue 22-Jan – 1
1 Introduction
1.1 Introduction to Course
53 Thu 24-Jan – 2
1.2 What are Human Rights?
Marie-Bénédicte Dembour. "What Are Human Rights? Four Schools of Thought." Human
Rights Quarterly 32.1 (2010): 1-20.
1.3 What are Critical Perspectives?
Laura Nader, “Comparative Consciousness” in Borofsky, Robert Assessing Cultural
Anthropology New York: McGraw-Hill, 1994, 84-96
hooks, bell. Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black. Boston, MA: South End
Press, 1989, 35-42
Lugones, María. 1987. "Playfulness, “World”-Travelling, and Loving Perception". Hypatia.
2, no. 2: 3-19.
R Mariana Valverde, Law’s Dream of a Common Knowledge Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 2003
59 Tue 29-Jan – 3 – Diagnostic Essay
2 The Human and Humanity
2.1
P
P
P
The Universal Human
Declaration of Independence, first two paragraphs, last full paragraph
Dred Scott v. Sandford, 60 U.S. 393 (1857) excerpt
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Preamble, Article 1 and 2
Thomas Laqueur, “Mourning, Pity, and the Work of Narrative in the Making of ‘Humanity,’”
in Wilson, Richard, and Richard D. Brown. Humanitarianism and Suffering: The
Mobilization of Empathy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. Excerpt: 38-49
Samera Esmeir, “On Making Dehumanization Possible,” (2006) PMLA: The Journal of
Modern Languages Association, 121(5) 1544-1551
O Makau Mutua, “Savages, Victims, and Saviors: The Metaphor of Human Rights” (2001)
Harvard Int’l L.J. 201, excerpt 228-233
O Thomas Laqueur, “Mourning, Pity, and the Work of Narrative in the Making of ‘Humanity,’”
(read entire article)
5 LS R1B – Writing Rights: Critical Perspectives on Human Rights – Syllabus – Spring 2013
2.2 The Human and the Other
P Bartolomé de Las Casas, “In Defense of the Indians”, excerpted from Ishay, Micheline. The
Human Rights Reader: Major Political Writings, Essays, Speeches, and Documents from
the Bible to the Present. New York, NY: Routledge, 1997. 67-72
Asad, Talal. "Redeeming the Human through Human Rights" in Formations of the Secular:
Christianity, Islam, Modernity. Stanford: Stanford UP, 2003. 127-134, 148-158
Pierre Clastres, “Of Torture in Primitive Societies” Society against the State, (Zone Books,
1987) 177-188
R Judith Butler, Gender Trouble New York: Routledge, 1999. 32-33, 128-136
49 Thu 31-Jan – 4 – RR, Group A
3 The State & Sovereignty
Scott, James C. “Cities, People, and Language” in Seeing Like a State: How Certain
Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed. New Haven: Yale University
Press, 1998, 53-83
P Johnson v. M'Intosh, 21 U.S. (8 Wheat.) 543 (1823)
Asad, Talal. "Redeeming the Human through Human Rights" in Formations of the Secular:
Christianity, Islam, Modernity. Stanford: Stanford UP, 2003. 134-140
W Address by His Excellency President Nasheed, Maldives, at the Climate Vulnerable
Forum, 9 November 2009, (watch at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlzVnH_8jFA)
O Rajagopal, Balakrishnan. International Law from Below Development, Social Movements,
& Third World Resistance. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 2003. 189-194
O "Governmentality” in Foucault, Michel, Graham Burchell, Colin Gordon, and Peter Miller.
The Foucault Effect: Studies in Governmentality : with Two Lectures by and an Interview
with Michel Foucault. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991. 87-104
R Garland, D. 1997. "'Governmentality' and the Problem of Crime: Foucault, Criminology,
Sociology" (1997) Theoretical Criminology 1(2) 173-214, excerpt: 175-180
75 Tue 5-Feb – 5
*** Research Skills Workshop: Approaches to Knowing, Argument and Persuasion
Pascale, Celine-Marie. Cartographies of Knowledge: Exploring Qualitative Epistemologies.
Thousand Oaks, Calif: SAGE, 2011, 14-38
Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams. The Craft of Research.
Chicago: The University of Chicago, 2011, 105-151
4 Constitutional Rights and Declarations of Sovereignty
40 Thu 7-Feb – 6 – RR, Group B
4.1
P
P
P
Early Modern Constitutional Rights
US Declaration of Independence (copy in unit 2.1)
US Bill of Rights
De Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Chapter 4, 53-55
Samuel Moyn, “Humanity Before Human Rights” in The Last Utopia: Human Rights in
History (2010), 11-14, 20-43
Jacques Derrida, “Declarations of Independence,” in Negotiations: Interventions and
Interviews, 1971-2001 (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2002), 46-54.
O Lynn Hunt, “The Paradoxical Origins of Human Rights,“ In Jeffrey N. Wasserstrom et al.
(eds.), Human Rights and Revolutions (2007) 3-17
R Hunt, Lynn. Inventing Human Rights: A History. New York: W.W. Norton & Co, 2007.
6 LS R1B – Writing Rights: Critical Perspectives on Human Rights – Syllabus – Spring 2013
50 Tue 12-Feb – 7 – RR, Group A
4.2 Responses to Constitutional Rights
P De Tocqueville, Democracy in America, Chapter VI (Judicial Power), Chapter VIII (The
Federal Constitution), parts 2, 5
P Rifa’a Rafi al-Tahtawi, Daniel L. Newman, translation, An Iman in Paris: Account of a Stay
in France by an Egyptian Cleric (1826-1831), (London: SAQI, 2004), 189-195, 205-213
P Communist Manifesto in Marx, Karl, Friedrich Engels, and Robert C. Tucker. The MarxEngels Reader. New York: Norton, 1978.
Wendy Brown, “Suffering the Paradoxes of Rights” in Wendy Brown and Janet Halley,
eds., Left Legalism/Left Critique (Duke University Press 2002), 420 – 434
W Dean Spade, discussing Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and
the Limits of Law (Brooklyn, NY: South End Press, 2011) http://blip.tv/grittv/dean-spadethe-most-imprisoning-nation-in-the-world-part-1-of-2-6482091
O Duncan Kennedy, “The Critique of Rights in Critical Legal Studies” in Wendy Brown and
Janet Halley, eds., Left Legalism/Left Critique (Duke University Press 2002), excerpt:
176 – 194
R On the Jewish Question in Marx, Karl, Friedrich Engels, and Robert C. Tucker. The MarxEngels Reader. New York: Norton, 1978.
R Ran Hirschl, "The Judicialization of Politics," The Oxford Handbook of Political Science
(Oxford University Press, 2009), pp. 253-274
W-13-Feb, Essay 1
10 Thu 14-Feb – 8
*** Writing Workshop: Peer Review
Straub, Richard , “Responding – Really Responding – to Other Students’ Writing” in
Bishop, Wendy. The Subject Is Writing: Essays by Teachers and Students. Portsmouth,
NH: Boynton/Cook, 1993 136 – 146.
45 Tue 19-Feb – 9 – RR, Group B
4.3
P
P
P
Indigenous Engagements with Sovereignty
UN Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples
Deskaheh, Red Man’s Appeal to League of Nations (bspace)
Kü‘ë Petitions protesting annexation of Hawaii, Example (bspace)
J. Kehaulani Kauanui, “Hawaiian nationhood, self-determination, and international law” in
Mallon, Florencia E. Decolonizing Native Histories: Collaboration, Knowledge, and
Language in the Americas. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2012, (27-54)
Pierre Clastres, “The Duty to Speak” in Society against the State: Essays in Political
Anthropology (New York: Zone Books, 1974) 151-155
O Alvaro Reyes and Mara Kaufman, “Sovereignty, Indigeneity, Territory: Zapatista Autonomy
and the New Practices of Decolonization” South Atlantic Q. 2011, 505-525
R Anaya, S. James. Indigenous Peoples in International Law. 2d ed. Oxford: Oxford
University Press, 2004.
R Coulthard, Glen. “Subjects of Empire: Indigenous Peoples and the ‘Politics of Recognition’
in Canada.” Contemporary Political Theory 6.4 (2007): 437–460.
W-20-Feb, Essay 1 Revision
7 LS R1B – Writing Rights: Critical Perspectives on Human Rights – Syllabus – Spring 2013
50 Thu 21-Feb – 10
*** Research Skills Workshop: Topics and Research Questions, Reviewing Literature
Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams. The Craft of Research.
Chicago: The University of Chicago, 2011, 31-68
Luker, Kristin. “Reviewing the Literature” Salsa Dancing into the Social Sciences Research
in an Age of Info-Glut. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 2008. 76-98
5 Human Rights: Declarations of Humanity or Sovereignty
49 Tue 26-Feb – 11 – RR, Group A
5.1 Founding of the United Nations
UN Charter, Preamble & Chapter I
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
Samuel Moyn, “Death from Birth”,The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History (2010), 44-84
R Mazower, Mark. No Enchanted Palace: The End of Empire and the Ideological Origins of
the United Nations. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2009.
37 Thu 28-Feb – 12 – Bibliography
5.1 Founding of the United Nations (continued)
Hannah Arendt, “The Decline of the Nation-State and the End of the Rights of Man” Origins
of Totalitarianism, Part Two, 1968, 147-182
Stefan-Ludwig Hoffmann, “Genealogies of Human Rights,“ in Hoffmann, Stefan-Ludwig.
Human Rights in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.
13-26
O Asad, Talal. "Redeeming the Human through Human Rights" in Formations of the Secular:
Christianity, Islam, Modernity. Stanford: Stanford UP, 2003. Excerpt: 135-148
86 Tue 5-Mar – 13 – Abstract
5.2 The Rise of Modern Human Rights Activism
P International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
P International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights
Samuel Moyn, “The Purity of this Struggle” in The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History
(2010), 120-176
O Kenneth Cmiel, “The Recent History of Human Rights,“ American Historical Review 109,
(2004) 117-35
O Buchanan, Tom. 2002. "'The Truth Will Set You Free': The Making of Amnesty
International". Journal of Contemporary History. 37, no. 4: 575-597.
R Niezen, Ronald. The Origins of Indigenism, Human Rights and the Politics of Identity.
Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.
6 Human Rights Action: Ways of Knowing and Doing
73 Thu 7-Mar – 14 – RR, Group B
6.1 Protecting
Genocide Convention (excerpted in Power)
Samantha Power, “Lemkin’s Law” and “Rwanda” A Problem from Hell. America and the
Age of Genocide (2002) 47-63, 329 - 389
8 LS R1B – Writing Rights: Critical Perspectives on Human Rights – Syllabus – Spring 2013
R Bloxham, Donald, and A. Dirk Moses. The Oxford Handbook of Genocide Studies. Oxford:
Oxford University Press, 2010.
R Evans, Gareth J. The Responsibility to Protect: Ending Mass Atrocity Crimes Once and for
All. Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press, 2008.
M-11-Mar, Essay 2
55 Tue 12-Mar – 15
*** Writing Workshop: Peer Review
Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams. The Craft of Research.
Chicago: The University of Chicago, 2011, 173-212
Orwell, George, "Politics and the English Language," George Orwell: A Collection of
Essays (NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1946)
46 Thu 14-Mar – 16 – RR, Group A
6.2 Punishing
P Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, Preamble, Arts. 1-5, 25, 28
W Excerpt of Robert Jackson Opening Statement, Nuremberg Tribunal
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L50OZSeDXeA) (7 minutes)
W “The Reckoning” excerpt of video on International Criminal Court
(http://www.pbs.org/pov/reckoning/icc_history.php#.UNt0D7Yfk6w) (16:40 minutes)
Ratner, Steven R., and Jason S. Abrams. Accountability for Human Rights Atrocities in
International Law: Beyond the Nuremberg Legacy. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
2001, 230-246
Kamari Clarke, “Global justice, local controversies: the International Criminal Court and the
sovereignty of victims” in Dembour, Marie-Bénédicte, and Tobias Kelly. Paths to
International Justice: Social and Legal Perspectives. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge
University Press, 2007.
R Juan Mendez, “National Reconciliation, Transitional Justice, and the International Criminal
Court,” Ethics and International Affairs 15, No. 1 (May 2001), pp. 25-44.
R Mendes, Errol. Peace and Justice at the International Criminal Court: A Court of Last
Resort. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2010.
M-18-Mar – Essay 2 Revision
6.3 Bearing Witness
35 Tue 19-Mar – 17 – RR, Group B
6.3.1 Indicators and Reporting
Richard A. Wilson, “Representing Human Rights Violations” in Human Rights, Culture and
Contexts: Anthropological Perspectives (London and Sterling, VA: Pluto Press, 1997)
134-160
Sally Engle Merry, “Measuring the World: Indicators, Human Rights, and Global
Governance” (2011) Current Anthropology. 52, no. SUPPL. 3: S83-S93.
52 Thu 21-Mar – 18 – RR, Group A
6.3.2 Talking and Writing about Rights from Local and Global Levels
Merry, Sally Engle, Human Rights and Gender Violence: Translating International Law into
9 LS R1B – Writing Rights: Critical Perspectives on Human Rights – Syllabus – Spring 2013
Local Justice. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006 (164-176, 192-217)
P Human Rights Watch World Report 2012 (Time to Abandon the Autocrats and Embrace
Rights)
P Reply from Centre for Secular Space (Women and Islam: A Debate with Human Rights
Watch)
O, P Press Conference by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay,
Geneva, 30 June 2011 - Statement
O Margaret Keck & Kathryn Sikkink, Activists Beyond Borders: Advocacy Networks in
International Politics (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1998) 1-8
O Marti Koskenniemi, “Human Rights Mainstreaming as a Project of Power” (2006)
R David Kennedy, The Dark Sides of Virtue: Reassessing International Humanitarianism
(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2004)
47 Tue 2-Apr – 19
6.3.3 Introducing Treaty Monitoring
P Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
Merry, Sally Engle, Human Rights and Gender Violence: Translating International Law into
Local Justice. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2006 (72-87, 113-131)
O Simmons, Beth. 2010 “Treaty Compliance and Violation” Annual Review of Political
Science. 13, no. 1: 273-296
R Simmons, Beth A. Mobilizing for Human Rights: International Law in Domestic Politics.
Cambridge [U.K.]: Cambridge University Press, 2009.
30 Thu 4-Apr – 20
6.3.4 Treaty Monitoring Case Study - Role Play
P CEDAW and Fiji Government Reports, tbd (bspace)
P Amnesty International, Submission to CEDAW, 2010 (bspace)
7 What do Rights Promise?
54 Tue 9-Apr – 21 – Research Paper Plan
7.1 Universal Rights in a Plural World
P Gandhi. Hind Swaraj; Or, Indian Home Rule. Ahmedabad: Navajivan Pub. House, 1946,
Chapter VI
P American Anthropological Association’s Statement on Human Rights and Commentaries
(1947), excerpted in Goodale, Mark. Human Rights: An Anthropological Reader.
Chichester, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2009.
P Obama’s Speech on a New Beginning (Cairo, 2009) (or watch,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=NaxZPiiKyMw, 54
minutes) (bspace)
Preis, Ann-Belinda S. 1996. "Human Rights As Cultural Practice: An Anthropological
Critique". Human Rights Quarterly 18, no. 2: 286-315.
Shivji, I, “Law's Empire and Empire's Lawlessness: Beyond Anglo-American Law” Law,
Social Justice & Global Development Journal (LGD) 2003 (1)
O Jack Donnelly, “The Relative Universality of Human Rights”, International Human Rights.
Boulder, Colo: Westview Press, 2007. 37-57
O Engle, Karen. 2001. From skepticism to embrace: Human rights and the American
Anthropological Association from 1947–1999. Human Rights Quarterly 23.3: 536–559.
O Sally Engle Merry, “Human Rights Law and the Demonization of Culture (And
Anthropology Along the Way” (2003) 26 Polar: Political and Legal Anthropology Review
10 LS R1B – Writing Rights: Critical Perspectives on Human Rights – Syllabus – Spring 2013
55-77.
R Otto, Dianne. 1997. "Rethinking the Universality" of Human Rights Law". Columbia Human
Rights Law Review. 29, no. 1: 1.
R Mark Goodale, “Encountering relativism: the philosophy, politics, and power of a dilemma”
in Surrendering to Utopia: An Anthropology of Human Rights. Stanford, Calif: Stanford
University Press, 2009. 40-64, 80-90
7.2 Equality
56 Thu 11-Apr – 22 – RR, Group B
7.2.1 Race
President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation
W.E.B. DuBois, “An Appeal to the World : A Statement of Denial of Human Rights to
Minorities in the Case of citizens of Negro Descent in the United States of America and
an Appeal to the United Nations for Redress.” (1947) 1-2, 11-14
Anderson, Carol. (1996) "From Hope to Disillusion: African Americans, the United Nations,
and the Struggle for Human Rights, 1944-1947". Diplomatic History 20:4
Asad, Talal. "Redeeming the Human through Human Rights" in Formations of the Secular:
Christianity, Islam, Modernity. Stanford: Stanford UP, 2003. 140-148
Jennifer Amos, “Embracing and Contesting: The Soviet Union and the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 – 1958” in Hoffmann, Stefan-Ludwig. Human Rights
in the Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010. excerpt: 147155.
O Jennifer Amos, “Embracing and Contesting: The Soviet Union and the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, 1948 – 1958” (read chapter)
R Anderson, Carol. Eyes Off the Prize: The United Nations and the African American
Struggle for Human Rights, 1944-1955. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press,
2003.
M-15-Apr – Essay 3 Outline
47 Tue 16-Apr – 23 – RR, Group A
7.2.2 Gender and Race
P Sojourner Truth, “Aint I a Woman?” Speech to Women's Convention, Akron, Ohio, 1851
W, P Hillary Clinton, Remarks to UN Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing 1995
(http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=xXM4E23Efvk) 20:20
minutes, or transcript (bspace)
Pamela Scully, “Gender, History and Human Rights” in Hodgson, Dorothy Louise. Gender
and Culture at the Limit of Rights. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011)
18-31
Riles, Annelise. 2002. "Rights Inside Out: The Case of the Women's Human Rights
Campaign" Leiden Journal of International Law. 15, no. 2: 285-305
Abu-Lughod, L. 2002. "Do Muslim Women Really Need Saving? Anthropological
Reflections on Cultural Relativism and Its Others" American Anthropologist 104: 783790.
O Kapur, Ratna. 2002. "The Tragedy of Victimization Rhetoric: Resurrecting the "Native"
Subject in International/Post-Colonial Feminist Legal Politics". Harvard Human Rights
Journal. 15, no. spring: 1-37.
O Dianne Otto, Lost in translation: re-scripting the sexed subjects of international human
rights law, in Orford, Anne. International Law and Its Others. Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 2006.
11 LS R1B – Writing Rights: Critical Perspectives on Human Rights – Syllabus – Spring 2013
R MacKinnon, Catharine A. Are Women Human?: And Other International Dialogues.
Cambridge, Mass: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2006.
R Buss, Doris, and Ambreena S. Manji. International Law: Modern Feminist Approaches.
Oxford: Hart, 2005.
49 Thu 18-Apr – 24 – RR, Group B
7.3 Self-determination
P Woodrow Wilson, The Fourteen Points Address (1918)
Cassese, Antonio. International Law. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005, 60-64
Samuel Moyn, “Imperialism, self-determination, and the rise of human rights” in Iriye, Akira,
Petra Goedde, and William I. Hitchcock. The Human Rights Revolution: An International
History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012, 159-179
Shannon Speed, “Exercising rights and reconfiguring resistance in the Zapatista Juntas de
Buen Gobierno” in Goodale, Mark, and Sally E. Merry. The Practice of Human Rights:
Tracking Law between the Global and the Local. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Press, 2007 163 – 193
R Erez Manela, The Wilsonian Moment: Self-Determination and the International Origins of
Anticolonial Nationalism (2007)
tbd Tue 23-Apr – 25
7.4 Freedom and Dissent
Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from a Birmingham Jail (bspace)
Emma Goldman on freedom of speech, excerpt TBD (bspace)
O “The Power of Powerless” in Vladislav, Jan, and Václav Havel. Vaclav Havel: Living in
Truth: Twenty-Two Essays Published on the Occasion of the Award of the Erasmus
Prize to Vaclav Havel. London: Faber and Faber, 1987, 36-57
Group Case Studies, selected from Arab Spring, Wikileaks, European Anti-Austerity
Movement, Occupy, Student Movement University of California, Student Movement
Quebec (bspace)
Thu 25-Apr - 26
*** Presentations of Student Research Projects
F-26 Apr – Essay 3
Tue 30-Apr – 27
*** Presentations of Student Research Projects
37 Thu 2-May – 28 - Written Comments
*** Writing Workshop: Peer Review, Essay 3
Booth, Wayne C., Gregory G. Colomb, and Joseph M. Williams. The Craft of Research.
Chicago: The University of Chicago, 2011, 232-269
F-17 May – Essay 3 Revision
12